Fantastic Four #21: ATOMIC POWER! 8

Fantastic Four #21, page 10, panel 2

Written by: Stan Lee

Drawn by: Jack Kirby

Inked by: George Bell

Lettered by: Art Simek

Having disbanded the team, Reed returns home to find that an old friend from his days as a soldier in World War II. Yes, it’s Nick Fury, clean-shaven and working for the CIA (presumably his last job before joining SHIELD). He’s dropped by to ask Reed to lend a hand with one of the CIA’s favourite activities – supporting regime change in a South American country.

This is the spur for the plot of the second half of the book, but we’re pausing for a moment to note that Reed has a completely spurious nuclear activator whirring away loudly for no reason at all. Note the lack of radiation shielding, or warning notices. Did he not learn a costly lesson about the harmful effects of radiation?